FRISCO, TX — When Taurean York hears his name called in the 2026 NFL Draft, his mind will immediately flash back to June of 2021. 

That summer, ahead of York’s junior season at Temple High School, he and his mother packed up the family’s car and drove to 15 college mega camps in 30 days. 

“A lot of those schools said they would offer me if I made a trip out there to go to a camp with them,” York told the media at the East-West Shrine Bowl. “They never offered me.”

York started at linebacker from his freshman year at a 6A school and was named a three-time captain. But, often, instead of offers, he heard “advice” from college coaches — like maybe he should move to defensive end because his core was soft. 

York could’ve moved positions. Or, he could’ve said that the coach didn’t know what he was talking about. Instead, he combined his freshman year jersey number (5) and his sophomore through senior year number (21) into the biggest number possible (521) and did that number of sit-ups every single day.

The Temple High School coaches had a front row seat for York’s training montage that would leave Rocky Balboa out of breath. Except there was no Apollo Creed or Clubber Lang or Ivan Drago taped onto the wall across from his sit-ups for motivation.  

“They always ask me, ‘What’s my why?’” York said. “My why is to prove myself right. I never once doubted myself. I never once said I couldn’t do it.”

That’s how a three-star recruit started from Day One at an SEC school, then became a two-time captain who helped lead the Texas A&M Aggies to their first College Football Playoff appearance in program history. 

But Texas A&M’s run to a College Football Playoff is not a Taurean York story. Taurean York is a microcosm of Texas A&M’s story.

For a decade, the Aggies were a program that wanted to tell you how great they were. They gave Jimbo Fisher a blank national championship plaque before he ever coached a game, as if hiring a coach who had won a national championship with someone else was winning the war, not just a battle. 

Back in 2022, Fisher’s staff, on the forefront of the NIL era, signed the best recruiting class in the history of college football. There were eight five-stars and 19 four-stars. But the number that defines that class today is that four of those recruits played their entire career at Texas A&M.

Over the past two seasons, Texas A&M became a program that does 521 sit-ups in the dark.

Of the five players who represented Texas A&M at the East-West Shrine Bowl, only one (Albert Regis) was a four-star recruit under Fisher, part of the original vision for how Texas A&M would get to where it is now. York and cornerback Tyreek Chappell were three stars. Offensive lineman Armaj Reed-Adams and defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim weren’t even offered by Fisher’s staff.  

“When you look at the talent on that group, it’s probably not the most talented group that we’ve had throughout my time at Texas A&M,” York said. “But it was the most close-knit brotherhood that we had.”

That, in a nutshell, is the Mike Elko effect. Elko was hired as Texas A&M’s head coach in late November 2023. But some players, like Chappell, experienced him as the defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher in 2021. 

“Elko was a guy who’d play the best players,” Chappell said. “He wanted people to be dogs, basically. If you weren’t a dog, you probably wouldn’t fit in very well.”

Elko’s tenure with the Fisher regime allowed him to witness what was holding Texas A&M back firsthand. The Aggies were trying to build a program from the outside in; through unearned national championship plaques, high-profile recruiting classes, and badass stadium improvements. Elko built Texas A&M from the inside out. 

“He praised us for doing the little things right,” Chappell said. “That was the difference between my freshman year and when he came back. All the little things became the big things.” 

During winter conditioning, strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt had the players do sled pushes down the length of the field and back. Only now, a false start, once such a little thing, meant the entire team had to start over. As Regis aptly described it, “You build the best chemistry through pain.”

“When he came back, he changed the whole culture,” Chappell said. “We were doing 6:00 a.m. workouts that were two times harder than when he wasn’t here.”

But the Aggies wouldn’t have achieved all their goals on the field if they didn’t spend the time together off of it. Most Texas A&M fans will remember wide receiver KC Concepcion for leading SEC wide receivers in total touchdowns. York will remember him most for cooking the team fried chicken, mac and cheese, and yams. The Aggies bowled three times a week together at Grand Station Entertainment, and even had a team paintball match in the summer.

“(Center Kolinu’u Faaiu) had his own paintball gun,” Onyedim said. “I’m like, ‘Naw, I’m not messing with bro.’ But, luckily, he was on my team. So I wasn’t really tripping.”

And, like any healthy organization, that culture started from the top down. Because while Elko may come across as a gruff drill sergeant to the masses, he has a softer spot that he allows the guys in his foxhole to see.  

“He always kept his door open,” Reed-Adams said. “No matter what time it was, he was in his office. Sometimes, I’d just go up and say, ‘Hey.’ He’s a funny guy. He’s serious, but he’ll crack a joke with you and let you crack a joke on him.”

During the dog days of fall camp, the coaches blared music in the meeting room for a little reprieve. As the players sang along, Elko walked into the meeting room and started popping his shoulders to the beat. 

“He doesn’t look like the dancing type, but that one day, he did a little dance, and it was probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” Regis said.

That, or the time one of the walk-ons dressed like Elko for Halloween and impersonated him during a team meeting. Everyone - including Elko - busted out laughing. And while Elko might have been the butt of that joke, these stories shine a little light on how he stopped the college football world’s jokes at A&M’s expense. 

“We stopped being the ones that got picked on,” Reed-Adams said. “We built a culture on togetherness, ethics, doing the right things, being on time, and playing hard. If they come in and buy into what he’s coaching, A&M is gonna go higher and higher. I see a national championship coming.”

But no one is making a plaque for it until it happens.